The Green Light
by QueenofConstellations
Summary: When Ron tells Hermione he doesn't want to settle down, she retreats to a bar, and her best friend, Draco Malfoy, has a game he'd like to play with her to cheer her up. One-shot fluffiness if you need a shot of cute.


_A/N: Have no fear, I'm working on Chapter Nine of DM&GOT as I write this, I just had this compulsion to write a one-shot and so here we are, with a one-shot. _

_Summary: This takes place about five years after the war is over. Hermione and Ron, who had been dating since the final battle, broke up when Ron told her he wasn't ready to settle down in a serious relationship quite yet. He meant that he didn't want to propose to her yet, she took it as he wanted to break up with her. So she went to a bar, by herself, to get drunk. Unfortunately for her, getting drunk is harder than it looks. Therein, she meets the man who has become a good friend of hers: Draco Malfoy._

_Disclaimer: I can thank only a couple of stories that I read recently for this plot bunny, and so thank you to Geeky-DMHG-Fan for her wonderful Dramione stories and basically making me ache to write one along the same vein. Also, the characters aren't mine._

**The Green Light**

Hermione Granger prided herself on her strength. She had faced Voldemort, for Merlin's sake! She raised her glass and chuckled to herself, making a toast no one else could hear, and downed the firewhiskey inside. It had stopped burning long ago, and she gave the bartender a two-finger wave to ask for another. Yes, Hermione thought she was brave and strong, but for some reason, every woman turns into a complete fool when the man they love tells them he doesn't want to settle down.

"_Ron, I don't understand," Hermione pleaded, ignoring the way tears were creeping down her cheeks embarrassingly. "Why are you doing this?" _

"_I'm not doing anything," Ron protested. "That's the problem. We're only twenty-two, why do we have to get married and have children and have a life where we don't do anything fun? We spent our whole lives fighting evil, I think we have earned a few extra years of fun." _

"_And why can't you have that fun with me?" Hermione asked, her voice pitifully weak. _

_He gave her a sad look. "I never said I couldn't." _

_She shook her head. "Yes, you did. You said you didn't want to settle down. And if we've been dating for five years, what do you think this is?" _

"_That's why I wanted to talk to you about it."_

"_But you're not talking," Hermione said, her voice rising in volume and hysteria. "You're telling me that you don't want to settle down when you essentially already have. Which means you're going to make a change." She felt weak now, like the confrontation was taking all of her strength. "So…if you don't want to settle down with me, fine. Get your stuff and get out." _

"_Hermione, that's not—"_

"_Get out, Ronald!" _

She hadn't lingered; she had Apparated from their fight directly to the bar, and had been throwing back firewhiskey ever since.

The sensible part of her brain told her that Ron would be back, that he only needed to travel for a little while and he would come crawling back to her, asking her to marry him, and they would fall in love all over again and have children and all of those things that Hermione wanted.

But the irrational part of her brain was already picturing Ron sleeping with girls from all around the globe, all in the name of freedom. He would marry some girl with straight hair and a dislike for books and they would have tons of hot-headed children together, leaving Hermione alone. Forever.

She threw back another firewhiskey and picked up another one, this time charming her glass to keep refilling.

"Haven't you had enough?"

She sighed, lowering her face to her arms. "No, Draco, I don't think so. What are you doing here, anyway?"

He snatched the glass from her and drank it himself. "Because you and I were supposed to hang out tonight, remember?"

Of course they were! She had completely forgotten. "I'm sorry, Draco, I forgot. Ron and I –"

He waved her off her apology. "No need, I already heard."

She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah? From whom?"

He gave her a sympathetic look. "Harry."

"He told Harry already?!" Hermione buried her face in her arms, letting her long, brown curls spread around her. "What an arsehole," she muttered, her voice muffled by her own arms. Draco started tracing smooth circles on her back soothingly.

"I think he's just confused," he said reasonably, but she could see he was hiding his disdain for her now ex-boyfriend.

"Please, don't hold back on my account."

He gave her a grateful look. "He's acting like a total prat!" He burst out. "What kind of idiot dates a woman for five years and just suddenly decides that he doesn't want to settle down? Isn't that what you've already done? And why wait five years to figure that out? Are you a sadist or just a complete imbecile!"

Hermione snorted a laugh into her new glass of firewhiskey. "I'm pretty sure he's cheating on me."

Draco paused in his rant to look over to her. His eyes, normally a stormy gray, had darkened. "Excuse me?"

Seeing her mistake, Hermione quickly added. "No, no Draco, I'm sure I'm just making things up, as usual."

His face didn't change. "Hermione Granger," he said. "I've never known you as someone to make something up or state anything ever unless she was absolutely sure and had plenty of irrefutable evidence. Keep going."

His dangerous tone was both scaring her and thrilling her. It felt good to have someone care about her this much.

"Can we move to a booth?" she asked tentatively. His stormy look did not subside, but he grabbed her glass and purse and led her to a booth.

She and Draco became friends mostly by accident. She had become one of the most disliked people in her department at the Ministry, mostly because she was in a department full of idiotic slackers who never did their job, and he was a former Death Eater. Their mutual exclusion made becoming friends the most logical thing to do.

For a while, they spent most of their time fighting over the past. But she quickly realized that they were both highly uncomfortable becoming friends with someone they had previously hated and had to forcibly destroy those ideas before they could become friends.

But they were incredibly compatible. They liked the same things, but had only slightly differing opinions on most things, making their talks interesting but not argumentative, they were both highly intelligent, and they were both unhappy with the stigmas that their childhood had impressed upon them.

Ron hadn't liked their friendship. He had forbidden Hermione from hanging out with Draco, and it wasn't until she told him she would move out if he didn't let her hang out with her friend that he relented. Since that confrontation, Ron and Draco had been cemented as enemies, a more permanent fixture of their previous opinions of each other. Weirdly enough, Draco had taken a liking to Harry's wife, Ginny, and they had become fast friends as well, making Draco a fixture in not only Hermione's life, but Harry's as well.

He did not sit across from her but instead sat next to her, making her lean against the wall to see him properly. His hands were clenched tightly in front of him, a physical manifestation of his anger.

"How do you know?" he asked again.

"Draco…"

"Hermione, tell me," his voice was commanding, but the tone almost husky.

"He stays out late for work, but much later than he should be, and his co-workers never know where he is."

"The bastard."

"I found a piece of jewelry in his drawer that disappeared. He never gave it to me or any other female in the family."

"Rotten little slimy git."

"And he won't have sex with me anymore."

Instead of an insult, Draco's hands clenched even tighter, his knuckles turning white. He inhaled sharply through his nose and exhaled, as though calming himself. Hermione watched him closely, unsure of what to say to him.

"Draco?"

He held up his hand. "Please, Hermione, just…give me a second," he said sharply. She recoiled, and his face immediately softened. "No, it's not you, it's just…" he trailed off.

"It's just…what?"

He slammed a fist on the table. "How does someone do that to you?" he said, trying to keep his voice low. "Doesn't he get it?"

Hermione furrowed her brows. "Get what?"

He seemed to realize what he was saying. His eyes searched hers quickly before he turned away from her. "Nothing, it's nothing. Forget about it."

This was not what he bargained for. He had come to this bar to make sure she was okay, thinking he would have to carry her home and put her in bed with a hangover potion beside her bed for when she woke up. But she was downright dangerously sober, despite her glasses of firewhiskey, and of all the things he thought Weasel might have done, cheating on her was not one.

He turned halfway to see her profile once more, angled downward in consternation. Merlin, she was beautiful. She wasn't the typical beauty he would normally find attractive, but his prolonged exposure to her had made her something more than beautiful. She was intelligent, delicate but strong, harsh but gentle, wonderful and terrible. She was a world of contrasts, and he wanted nothing more than to make her happy.

But she was with her childhood love. So he settled on being her friend, knowing that something was better than nothing. He liked to torture himself, it seemed, and he was unable to separate himself from her. They were so close now he felt like he could easily replace Potter or, better yet, Weasel, in her life and she wouldn't even know the difference.

But he would. He had become too comfortable with her, letting his protectiveness shine though, touching her when he didn't absolutely need to, complimenting her looks and her clothes, buying her dinner. He had elevated her to almost girlfriend-status without meaning to, only because he was unable to stop himself from trying to make her happy.

And here he was, practically spelling it all out for her the same night she broke up with the love of her life.

"How much do you love him?" Draco asked, his eyes back on the table.

He could hear her shifting uncomfortably. "Why do you ask?"

"Just answer the damn question."

She blinked in surprise. "I don't know. I mean, I've loved him since we were children, and I always assumed we would get married and have a family."

Draco felt the sting in his chest spread and reveled in it, letting it remind him why he couldn't have her.

"But I'm not so sure anymore."

Wait, what? Draco turned to her, almost too sharply.

"Granger, I have an idea," he said, letting himself slip back into his usual drawl. She raised her eyebrows at the use of her last name, but didn't comment. "Let's play that Muggle game you like so much. Truth or dare. But we can use the lie detector spell so that we know when one of us tries to lie."

She let a smile take over her face. "No way, Draco. Not with alcohol in my system."

He smirked at her and felt his stomach tighten at the way she seemed to melt at it. "Why, Granger? Scared?"

A look of determination covered her face and he knew he had her.

"Fine," she said, crossing her arms. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Why do you want to play this game?" she asked shrewdly, her wand pointing at him.

Draco weighed the options of lying to her simply to drag out the game, but figured the more open he was with her, the better his chances would be. He sighed. "To cheer you up, and to show you that you don't need Weasley." The wand light turned green, an indication of the truth. "Now you. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Do you find me attractive?"

Her eyes widened. "Wh..why are you asking me that?"

He smirked at her. "Answer the question, Hermione."

She scoffed. "Absolutely not." The light went red.

He raised an eyebrow. "Try again."

An exasperated sigh. "Fine, a little."

Still red.

"Goodness, Miss Granger, what a little liar you are," Draco scolded. "Try again, or the wand will compel you to answer correctly."

"Yes." Still red.

Hermione could feel the compulsion to tell the truth forcing the words up her throat like vomit. She struggled against it, but found it to be ultimately a futile effort. "I find you more than just attractive," she ground out, trying to keep her jaw closed. "But I don't think you're handsome either. I think you're beautiful, like a priceless painting that should be in a museum instead of gawked at on the street. I find myself constantly wanting to touch you just to make sure you're real and ask you why you, someone so beautiful, would want to be friends with someone as ordinary and frumpy as myself," she took a large gulp of her drink. "I hate you."

He chuckled. "I was only looking for a yes, that was all you, Hermione, dear."

She narrowed her eyes. "Truth or dare?"

"Hmm…since I don't want to risk your anger, I'll go with truth."

"Why did the idea of Ron cheating on me upset you so much?"

Shit. Shit. Shit. He cast his mind around for something to say that wasn't a lie but wasn't quite the truth. "Because I'm your friend." Red.

Her smirk matched his former one. "Because Weasel is an arse and you don't deserve that." Red.

"Tsk tsk," she said, imitating Draco. "Once more."

"Screw it. Because I don't understand how someone can even look at another woman when you're around. Because I cannot fathom how someone like you can love someone like him, much less how he couldn't appreciate what he had."

She looked surprised, and not at all triumphant. She seemed to know that what he said meant more than just being protective of your friend.

"Draco…"

"Truth or dare."

She pursed her lips. "Dare."

"Kiss me."

The demand had been soft and quiet, but it echoed through her. "Wh…what?" she asked. Draco didn't look smug now. He looked scared, like he was afraid she would refuse and walk away. He looked like he was putting a lot out in the open, something she knew for a fact he didn't do. He looked like a teenage boy, scared to death of his first crush.

"Please."

His quiet plea shook something in her. She stared at him, watching as his eyes went from hopeful, to desperate, to guarded.

"If you don't want to, you don't have to," he said quietly, obviously regretting his dare. She shook her head, but still paused before she spoke.

"I had no idea."

He laughed. "Well, I guess my plan worked perfectly then," he said with cynicism. "Be her friend because she'll never love you, but leave hints that she could love you if she wanted. Soon, she'll figure it out, she's the brightest witch of her age," his stare wasn't mean, but it hurt her all the same. "I guess they were wrong about you."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Ron is the love of your life," he whispered. "I couldn't do that to you."

"So you were content to just sit by and wait forever?" she asked, shocked at his patience. He gave her a nod.

"I was willing to wait, but if you never figured it out, I still never would have left," he said. "I couldn't. Merlin, I can't. I've tried."

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and he tried not to look disappointed. But she had a radiant smile on her face that he couldn't decipher. He knew Hermione enough to know what all of her facial expressions meant, but he couldn't figure out this one.

"Quick, ask me truth or dare," she said.

"But it isn't your turn," Draco protested weakly.

She glared at him. "Screw the rules. Ask me truth or dare."

"Okay…truth or dare."

"Truth. Now ask me how I feel about you."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "You don't have to do this," he said slowly. "I don't need you to let me down easy, you can just tell me without the game."

"If you don't have the wand, then you won't believe me," she explained. "Now, ask me."

"Okay, Hermione, how do you feel about me?"

"When Ron told me that he didn't want to settle down, I picked the fight. He only meant that he didn't want us to get married for a while, but I made it a huge fight and turned it into a breakup because I didn't love him that way anymore. I had been spending too much time with a certain blond friend that had been putting a strain on our relationship, and for some reason, I always chose to side with you."

"Hermione, you don't have to—"

"Shut up, I'm not done. Anyway, I became friends with this blond guy from the Ministry, and for some reason, no matter what happened, he would always help me. When I forgot things at home, he'd go get it. When someone was mean to me, he would defend me. He was always telling me how pretty I looked even when Ron never noticed. He was always there, and I started to realize that I appreciated spending time with him more than I did with my boyfriend. I realized that marrying Ron would be a mistake if I had more fantasies about my friend than I did about my boyfriend."

Draco's eyebrows went up so high they almost disappeared into his hair.

"I realized, when Ron told me that he didn't want to settle down that I did. I wanted to settle down desperately. But not with him."

She took his hand and squeezed it. "With you."

The wand light turned green.

The smile he gave her was so brilliant it almost blinded her. She had never seen Draco Malfoy smile that big. He let out a nervous laugh that turned quickly into a shining in his eyes that looked something like tears.

"I love you," he said quietly, feeling the thrill of the words leaving his lips. She let out a gleeful laugh. "I love you," he said again. He leaned forward, to capture her lips, finally, but she stopped him.

"I love you too," she whispered against his cheek before taking his lips with her own.

_A/N: Ta da! Completely cheesy and fluffy, I know, but sometimes I just feel like fluff. Sigh…they just make me happy. _


End file.
